Tom Horner, Minnesota Public Radio’s (MPR) Republican analyst and an adviser to Republicans including former Sens. Norm Coleman and Dave Durenberger, told “Midday” that Bachmann is sending the wrong message.

“She is an embarrassment to some republicans, myself included,” he said. “She is intentionally provocative, and does it in a way that is designed to exploit fears, to exploit mistrust in government, to do all of the kinds of things that America is not needing right now.”

He continued, “I don’t think that’s what the Republicans ought to be doing and I don’t think it’s how we need to be defined. We need leadership in this party that can stand up and say, ‘Michele Bachmann is not my kind of Republican.’”

Predictably, MPR’s Democratic analyst, Todd Rapp, welcomed Bachmann as a leading voice for the Republicans.

“In a state like Minnesota, if Michele Bachmann wants to be the voice of the Republican Party, I think most Democrats would say, ‘That’s great!’”